Case study 1
Agreeing and documenting a partial exemption method that survives review
The client had recovered input tax on a rough split inherited from a former bookkeeper, with nothing written down. We identified what each significant cost was actually used for, tested a turnover basis against a use-based one for the residual overheads, and adopted the basis that matched the business rather than the one that gave the better answer. The engagement produced a written method note, a recalculation for the open periods, and a monthly working the client's own staff complete, so the method is applied consistently instead of re-invented each year.
Case study 2
A property letting treated as taxable when it was in fact exempt
Tax had been charged to tenants and recovered on refurbishment costs on the assumption the letting was taxable. The nature of the property and the way it was let put it on the exempt side. We set out the analysis, quantified both halves of the error, and dealt with the tenants' position as well as the client's own. The work produced a corrected treatment going forward, adjustments for the periods still open, and credit notes and explanations the tenants' own advisers could accept without a dispute.
Case study 3
Costing an exempt activity before a new service line was priced
The client was about to launch a service that would be exempt and had budgeted its costs net of tax, as it did for everything else. We worked through which inputs the new line would consume, established how much of the tax on them would stick, and showed where the new activity would drag on recovery for the existing business. The engagement produced a costing the client used to set its price, a forecast of the effect on its recovery rate, and a decision about which entity would carry the activity.
Case study 4
The same service exempt in one country and taxable in the next
A group supplied an identical service from two jurisdictions and had assumed one treatment covered both. It did not. We classified the supply separately under each system, identified where the difference changed who recovered what, and set out the consequences for pricing between the group's own entities. The work produced a country-by-country classification table, corrected registrations and returns where they had followed the wrong assumption, and contract wording that describes the supply precisely enough for each authority to reach its own answer without ambiguity.
Case study 5
An input tax recovery reversed on audit because of exempt use
The reviewer found costs recovered in full that had been used partly for an exempt stream the client regarded as incidental. Incidental is not a defence on its own. We agreed the adjustment for the items that plainly failed, argued the ones where the use was genuinely taxable, and rebuilt the recovery calculation from that point forward. The outcome was a settled adjustment for the period under review, a method the reviewer accepted for the future, and an end to the recovery of a category of cost that should never have been claimed.
Case study 6
A capital purchase used partly for exempt activity and adjusted over time
The client bought a building, recovered on the basis of its intended use, and then changed how the space was occupied. Recovery on an asset of that kind is not settled by the treatment in the year of purchase; it follows the use over a run of later years. We established the initial entitlement, tracked the change in use, and calculated the adjustments due for each year affected. The engagement produced a schedule the client can continue, adjustments for the years already passed, and a note of what a further change would require.
Case study 7
Fifteen Per Cent Held Back From a Fee for Services in Canada
A payer must withhold from fees paid to a non-resident for services rendered in Canada, whether or not any tax is ultimately owed. A waiver applied for before the work is invoiced avoids the withholding; after it, the money comes back through a return.
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Case study 8
US Estate Tax on Assets a Canadian Did Not Know Were Exposed
US shares and US real estate sit inside the US estate tax net regardless of where the owner lives. The treaty provides relief that is proportionate rather than automatic, and the calculation depends on the worldwide estate.
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